Emanuel: It's time to close chapter on Burge scandal

Council settles pair of police torture cases for $7.2 million

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, one of the sponsors of the food truck proposal, saw aldermen vote 45-1 to adopt the law Wednesday at City Council. (Nancy Stone, Chicago Tribune)

Aldermen approved more than $7 million in payments Wednesday to two more men who said they were tortured during the 1980s by detectives under the command of disgraced former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge.

An attorney for one of the men suggested that Mayor Rahm Emanuel — who didn't take office until last year — should apologize for the actions of Burge, who was fired in 1993 and is now serving 4 1/2 years in federal prison for lying about the torture and abuse of suspects.

Instead, Emanuel said he wants the city to move past the scandal.

"I am focused on the future of the city, not just about the past," Emanuel told reporters when asked why he didn't see fit to apologize. "And that I wanted to settle this, which is what we have done. I also wanted to see this dark chapter in the city's history brought to a close. I think we are achieving it. And to learn the lessons from this moment so we can build a future for the city."

Attorney Flint Taylor said Emanuel missed a chance to usher in a "changing of the guard with regard to the torture cases."

"I think it's an important symbolic act that would help to heal this community, and you have to be tone-deaf to the African-American community not to understand that that community still feels very strongly that justice has not been done, and that the city still stands on the wrong side of the issue," Taylor said.

Michael Tillman will receive $5.375 million in the settlement. He spent more than 23 years in prison for a 1986 rape and murder, and said he confessed to the crime only because detectives under Burge beat him and threatened to kill him, along with other torture.

Tillman named former Mayor Richard Daley, who was Cook County state's attorney at the time of his conviction, as a defendant in his lawsuit. By agreeing to the settlement, Tillman gives up the chance to have Daley questioned by his lawyers as part of the case.

David Fauntleroy will get $1.8 million thanks to Wednesday's vote. He spent 25 years in prison for a 1983 murder, and likewise said detectives commanded by Burge beat a false confession out of him.

The latest settlements bring to $44.9 million the amount the city has paid to Burge victims and to cover attorneys fees.

Also Wednesday at City Council:

•Aldermen voted 45-1 to adopt a law allowing dishes to be prepared on food trucks and to let them operate for more hours each day. Emanuel, who was one of the sponsors of the plan, said it allows Chicago to finally join dozens of other U.S. cities that regulate the trucks. "Fifty other cities have figured out a way to go forward on food trucks and brick-and-mortar (restaurants). Now, Chicago is known as the Second City, I just wanted to make sure we weren't known as the fifty-second city."

Ald. John Arena, 45th, cast the lone dissenting vote but spoke for many food truck operators when he said the law goes too far in protecting traditional eateries by setting tight parking restrictions and heavy fines that he thinks will stifle the rolling restaurants.

"The brick-and-mortar restaurant lobby got a hold of (the plan), and it was stuffed with protectionism and baked in the oven of paranoia," Arena said.

•The council approved new ethics standards for aldermen and city employees. The plan requires more detailed financial disclosures and tightens a gift ban while stopping short of extending the power of the city's inspector general to investigate aldermen or "sister agencies" such as the Chicago Park District. Emanuel called the changes an important step but said an ethics panel he created will come forward with additional recommendations in the next few months.

•An amendment was added to the city's gun ordinance so that those convicted of a violent misdemeanor more than five years ago can receive a firearm permit. Emanuel backed the change after a federal court judge struck down a section of the existing law as unconstitutional.